|
|
The functional and physical unit of heredity passed from parent to offspring. Genes are pieces of DNA, and most genes contain the information for making a specific protein.
|
|
An increase in the number of copies of any particular piece of DNA. A tumor cell amplifies, or copies, DNA segments naturally as a result of cell signals and sometimes environmental events.
|
|
The process by which proteins are made from the instructions encoded in DNA.
|
|
Determining the relative positions of genes on a chromosome and the distance between them.
|
|
The sum total of genes, with all their variations, possessed by a particular species at a particular time.
|
|
An evolving technique used to treat inheritied diseases. The medical procedure involves either replacing, manipulating, or supplementing nonfunctional genes with healthy genes.
|
|
Insertion of unrelated DNA into the cells of an organism. There are many different reasons for gene transfer: for example, attempting to treat disease by supplying patients with therapeutic genes. There are also many possible ways to transfer genes. Most involve the use of a vector, such as a specially modified virus that can take the gene along when it enters the cell.
|
|
(ATGC) The instructions in a gene that tell the cell how to make a specific protein. A, T, G, and C are the "letters" of the DNA code; they stand for the chemicals adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine, respectively, that make up the nucleotide bases of DNA. Each gene's code combines the four chemicals in various ways to spell out 3-letter "words" that specify which amino acid is needed at every step in making a protein.
|
|
A short-term educational counseling process for individuals and families who have a genetic disease or who are at risk for such a disease. Genetic counseling provides patients with information about their condition and helps them make informed decisions.
|
|
(Also known as a linkage map) a chromosome map of a species that shows the position of its known genes and/or markers relative to each other, rather than as specific physical points on each chromosome.
|
|
A segment of DNA with an identifiable physical location on a chromosome and whose inheritance can be followed. A marker can be a gene, or it can be some section of DNA with no known function. Because DNA segments that lie near each other on a chromosome tend to be inherited together, markers are often used as indirect ways of tracking the inheritance pattern of a gene that has not yet been identified, but whose approximate location is known.
|
|
Testing a population group to identify a subset of individuals at high risk for having or transmitting a specific genetic disorder.
|
|
All the DNA contained in an organism or a cell, which includes both the chromosomes within the nucleus and the DNA in mitochondria.
|
|
The genetic identity of an individual that does not show as outward characteristics.
|
|
Inherited material that comes from the eggs or sperm and is passed on to offspring.
|
|
One of the four bases in DNA that make up the letters ATGC, guanine is the "G". The others are adenine, cytosine, and thymine. Guanine always pairs with cytosine.
|
|